ORLANDO, Fla. – Trucking executives heaped kudos on Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for supporting a diesel tax increase over tolls on Interstate highways and a weight-distance levy.
"We had trucking spending money to promote a referendum to raise money on itself. This guy is good," said Robert A. Young III, President of Arkansas Best Corp, Fort Smith, Ark., at an Oct. 30 speech by Huckabee at American Trucking Associations’ Management Conference & Exhibition.
Huckabee praised trucking for leading the opposition to a proposal by the Arkansas Highway Commission to toll Interstates 30, 40 and 55 to pay for a multibillion-dollar highway improvement program, calling efforts by ATA and the Arkansas Trucking Association "courageous."
"We acknowledge that pieces of the Interstates in Arkansas are in very bad shape," Huckabee said, but tolls were not the way to pay for improvements. Huckabee backed a successful $575 million bond referendum and legislation approved last spring that increases the gasoline tax by 3 cents a gallon over the next three years and a 4-cent-a-gallon increase in the diesel fuel tax.
The June 15 bond vote completed the state’s effort to finance improvements to its crumbling roads, which prompted proposals for tolls on Interstates and weight-distance taxes.
